Inside the Frame
by dooder's nin
Summary: The school's Fine Art month is the opportunity for the friends to take part in and enjoy the various artistic outlets offered by the school. Acting in charge of setting up one of the galleries, the girls come across a blank canvas that isn't quite as blank as it appears, beginning to frighten them as they get caught up in the changes that occur within and outside the canvas' frame.


The girls were excited over the school's Fine Arts month, taking the initiative to be a part of the planning committee to designate and set up a couple of halls on the upper floor to serve as a gallery space. The art class had been working on their own projects to exhibit, but the girls thought it would be a special feature to include some prominent art too. Cleo had been adamant that they could persuade some of the more prominent families, hers included, to provide a piece of historical or cultural value. The real issue they found themselves in was how to then manage the art pieces, Cleo and Draculaura finding themselves wanting to pursue different styles.

"If we set them up in here, the natural light will be beautiful for the projects from the art class." Draculaura said, the others finding it ironic the vampire would advocate for that. "We just need to make sure that some curtains block the light to the paintings…." She said, but Cleo shook her head.

"We can't do that. Otherwise it'll mess up the order of the pieces we already agreed on." Cleo said, Ghoulia giving a moan to remind her friend that they hadn't actually agreed on anything.

"Why don't we ask, um….Rochelle? Or Catrina?" Frankie suggested as she stood off to the side with Clawdeen and Lagoona, Abbey already looking through the pieces that were in the crates for them to organize. "They'd know more about how to handle the art, right?" she tried to intervene, but Cleo and Draculaura were back to arguing over whether to go with the aesthetic or to go with the thematic approach.

"There many more paintings than for one hall." Abbey said, pausing to look at one with an appreciative look at the wintry landscape. "Will be needing to clear more room." She said.

"Abbey, you need to be wearing gloves to handle those pieces." Clawdeen said, handing her friend a pair. Abbey rolled her eyes but took them nonetheless, pulling out one of the wrapped art pieces. "This must be awfully special to get special covering. Feels like heavy frame." She said as she began to unwrap it.

"Wait for the two of them to figure something out before you get started Abbey." Lagoona said, looking to spare her friend the trouble of having to do things all over again with the way things usually were done by her friends. But the yeti just shrugged. "Then we never be getting to anything today. I want to see some of them." She said, the only one of the group not worried about being so blunt about the truth of their friend's behaviors.

With Clawdeen's help, Lagoona breaking away from the group to carry out Frankie's suggestion of finding either Rochelle or Catrina, Abbey was able to get the thick covering off the painting. "Huh, it's just a blank canvas." Clawdeen said as they looked it over, Frankie coming over to inspect it too.

"Oh, there's something written on the back." She said, prompting Abbey and Clawdeen to carefully maneuver it so they could all see what was written. "Portrait B. Hallward; Property of D.G. 1891" Frankie read, the three of them shrugging as they looked back to see nothing actually painted on the canvas.

"Maybe this Hallward was invisible at the time." Clawdeen suggested, Abbey snickering at her humor. "But according to the list of stuff we got, it was a permanent gift of….the Wotton family. Guess they'd been looking for a chance to get rid of an old piece of blank canvas."

"But the frame is itself a piece of art." Frankie said as she inspected the ornate and gilded frame that detailed the frills of the period it belonged to. "We should put it up anyway. We wouldn't want to insult anyone if the Wotton family comes to any of the showings." She said, bringing it over to a spot on the wall neither Cleo nor Draculaura had claimed for something else yet. She hoisted it up onto the special hooks for the art pieces, stepping back and taking off her gloves as she admired the piece. She turned to see Abbey looking a little unsure if it should've been hung up, but she was more interested in the fact that Clawdeen's ears were twitching back and forth.

"Your boyfriend supposed to be making an appearance Frankie?" Clawdeen asked her friend, but Frankie just shrugged at the odd question. "I swear he must've been nearby. I could hear his…uh…nevermind." She said with a bit of a blush. "Must've been my imagination."

"Holt's been bothering the orchestra since after lunch." Frankie said with a smile. "He's been trying to get them to synch their playing with some dubstep of his. He played me a sample of what he's trying to do and it actually doesn't sound too bad, but I think they're not going to go for it." She said, Abbey chuckling at the thought of Holt probably deciding to show up on their performance night anyway to contribute his own 'fine art'. "What makes you think he was anywhere near here?" she asked, shaking her head as Cleo once again took a piece Draculaura had arranged to rearrange according to her setup.

"Well,uh…" Clawdeen started to say. "I thought I heard him, but guess not." She said with an embarrassed smile. But at Frankie's unconvinced look she sighed. "Fine. Werewolf hunting instincts and hearing, Frankie. I thought I heard his heartbeat, but it was way too slow for it to have been him. Those two are screwing with my senses." Clawdeen said, Frankie just shrugging at her friend's admission.

Ghoulia's much louder than usual moan had them turning to face where she was standing between Draculaura and Cleo, both of whom looking appropriately ashamed at having to be admonished by their friend for their stubbornness. Frankie laughed at Ghoulia taking charge until the zombie pointed out that she, Abbey and Clawdeen had already started to go through some of the paintings. With that, the group got back to a more cooperative mood, although Draculaura and Cleo's styles continued to clash now and then while they waited for Lagoona to convince Rochelle and Catrina to momentarily leave the art studio. As they were drawing up layout plans, Clawdeen's ears twitched and she gave a small growl of frustration.

"Maybe there's something in the walls that's…Ahhh!" Frankie started to suggest to her friend when she was surprised from behind by strong arms lifting her up and spinning her around. "Holt! What are you doing in here? You scared me." She said as her boyfriend righted her again, laughing as she scowled at him.

"Thought I'd frighten up your day Frankie-Fine." Holt said as he began to look over the stuff they'd already unpacked and laid out in a half hazard fashion until they'd established a definite plan. "I was gettin' nowhere with the orchestra and thought I'd check this out with you. Kept tellin' me my stuff ain't appropriate for their night and to wait for the modern art nights. Phshh….it's good any night and I'm sure they'll enjoy my surprise." He said with a smirk, Cleo smacking his hand away from one of the ancient pieces they were going to set up.

"Holt. No surprises that'll get you and Jackson into trouble." Frankie said with a warning tone. "You can rock everyone's socks off at the other performances. How're the mural pieces going?" she asked, sighing when Holt returned to playing with some of the student pieces. "Holt!" she shouted a little louder to get his attention, getting him to look up at the same time they heard a snapping of something.

"Oops. Oh, well." Holt said as he tossed one of the sticks that had been used as part of some smaller sculpture's crown over his shoulder. "Looks better like this." He said, Frankie shaking her head as she pulled him away from the other pieces.

"Why aren't you helping with the murals Holt?" Frankie asked once she was satisfied he was far enough away from the items they had out already to not do any more damage, intentional or otherwise. Holt shrugged as though he didn't really care all that much about it. "Clawd keeps whinin' about the paint being difficult to get out of his fur." He said.

"Well it's true. Why? Did you dump a can on him or something?" Clawdeen asked, humor in her voice as she imagined her brother coming home in various shades of the color spectrum. Holt snickered too, Frankie's look getting him to answer.

"Hey! Wasn't me. It was Heath that painted the mustache on him in neon green." Holt said, Clawdeen bursting into howls of laughter at that image. Holt smiled too, Abbey just shaking her head at her boyfriend's typical goofy behavior. "So we decided to take a break while Clawd chased after Heath. Werewolves are fast but fire is faster." He said with a shrug as he made to walk past Frankie to peruse the collection of stuff they still had wrapped up. But Frankie held him back, cautious to let him help with how he and his cousin usually contributed to anyone's aid.

"Hey, I actually need to talk to Draculaura for a sec. Well, _I_ don't, but I found somethin' that Jackson was hiding and I think he's just too much of a wuss to present it himself." Holt said, pulling out a journal he'd had folded into his back pocket.

"Am not thinking is good idea to get into argument with yourself." Abbey said, Holt waving off her worries. "Jackson will not appreciate invasion of privacy. You two working hard on being better with that."

"Yeah, but he'll thank me later." Holt said, handing the journal to Draculaura who took it, looking like she wasn't sure if she should just keep it to the side or give into her incessant curiosity. Biting her lip, she looked to Frankie briefly before flipping open the first page and gasping.

"Jackson can sketch?" the vampire asked, flipping through the pages. "I guess it makes sense, but I didn't know he liked to draw." She said, thinking over how Holt had been asked by their Headmistress to demonstrate his own artistic skills, Cleo looking over her shoulder. "But why show me?" she asked.

"Ain't you the head of this show thingy?" Holt asked, taking advantage of their focus being put onto Jackson's journal to pick up a few more things. Draculaura let out an embarrassed 'oh' before resuming flipping through the pages.

"There's some stuff in here that's really good. But plenty that he probably didn't intend for anybody to see." Cleo said, Draculaura handing the journal over to her.

"I know. That's why I'm givin' to ya." Holt smirked, Frankie sighing in frustration at Holt's typical irresponsible nature. "'Sides, like I said, once it gets out there he'll thank me. The normie needs me to get things goin' for him sometimes, right Frankie?" Holt said to his girlfriend, Frankie blushing a little. "Can't argue with his inspiration though. Thought there were a few of you too Draculaura." Holt said, causing Frankie's attention to be directed at her friend.

"He he…what?" Draculaura asked with a little blush of her own. "They're at the beginning of the journal. It looks like he's had it since he first came to Monster High." Cleo said, Frankie coming to grab the journal from Cleo to look it over for herself as she gave into her own curiosity. She had been trying to restrain herself to honor Jackson's privacy, but Holt's comments had her quickly tossing that aside.

"Frankie, we're neighbors. He was just sketching the people he met…" Draculaura said, although she sighed at some of the loving drawings Jackson had done of her. "Oh, uh…I was just being friendly with him." she said.

"Like friendly with Heath too?" Abbey asked with a knowing smirk, Draculaura fidgeting under the unwanted attention. She stammered out more denials, explaining that those were different situations. Unfortunately, as the girls were talking among themselves and looking over some of the pages with Jackson's works, Holt had decided to try and balance on one of the stands as they ignored him. But his assumption that they had secured it to the floor was too hasty and he found himself toppling over onto the floor and knocking down the stand.

"Holt!" The girls said as he landed on his backside, Frankie rushing over to him as he pulled himself up. "What are you doing? Just find a spot and sit still if you really want to help." She said, dragging him over to one of the corners. He sighed as he let her drag her away from his game, but didn't say anything as he sat on the floor like a kid in time out.

"I ain't a child Frankie." Holt said, crossing his arms and pouting in a way that made him look more childish than he intended to his girlfriend. "I'm just bored." He said. Frankie walked back over to the girls to grab Jackson's journal, noticing that there was a section towards the back that was used too, only upside down to the others and stuck more to the cover. Seeing her twisting the journal, Holt got back up to grab it out of her hands.

"Don't look at that!" Holt said, startling Frankie as she worried that she might have set off his short fuse somehow. But she noticed that he just looked a little embarrassed. She looked curiously at him. "I thought you said you just found it? But it looks like you've been using it too." she said, with a hand to her hip.

"Um…only recently. Jackson put up a fuss when he'd seen my alterations but he agreed to let me keep usin' it if I kept it quiet." Holt said with a sheepish smile.

"So you immediately come and share it with us? For us to show to the whole school?" Clawdeen asked sarcastically. Holt rolled his eyes. "I told you. The normie actually had some talent. I thought if you got a spot for one of his sketches, I could…contribute a little too. Make it a surprise. A joint effort." He said with a shrug.

"Aww, really?" Frankie asked, finding Holt's efforts to work with his other half to be touching. Jackson had more or less been forced into cooperating with his other half's lack of any reliability and had made all sorts of concessions to try and find some balance with him. "Let me see." She said, reaching to grab it out of Holt's hands but her boyfriend just lifted it over his head and out of his reach.

"Nah uh. It's a work in progress." He said, but Frankie merely detached one of her hands to help reach the journal, Holt not sure how to combat that without actually hurting any part of Frankie. The Frankenstein monster let out a triumphant noise as she got Holt to hand it over to her, flipping through the back pages. "Poetry?" she asked as she read over his works. Holt rubbed the back of his neck in his nervousness, looking very much like his other half at that.

"It ain't poetry…" Holt tried to defend. "It's...um…" He tried to say but Frankie just smiled at him. "It's great Holt. Just like song lyrics." She said, closing the journal and handing it back to him. "But you should let Jackson pick which sketch he might want to submit and then you can add your half to the work." She said.

"Speaking of work, we need to get a move on. All we got up so far is that blank canvas." Cleo said dismissively, pointing over her shoulder.

"No you didn't. That's got somethin' on it." Holt said, causing the girls to abruptly face what had been a blank canvas. Now it looked like there were some marks on it like a faded reflection of the room they were in.

"Huh…that's pretty neat. Guess it's a never-finished work of art. Redraws itself when it's exhibited." Abbey said as she and the others gathered around the piece again.

"Anyway…" Holt said. "I should probably get to workin' on that mural like you said. Just wanted to stop by." Holt said, pocketing the journal again. He started to head out, but Frankie caught up to walk with him down the end of the hallway to reach the stairs, their 'gallery space' closer to the attic than they would have preferred but it gave them plenty of room.

"Hey, were you hanging around here earlier too?" Frankie asked as Holt wrapped an arm around her shoulders. He gave her a funny look she'd come to recognize as one of his attempts to look innocent. "Holt, were you messing around with things?" she asked again, Holt chuckling a little.

"I may have wandered around a bit." He said, Frankie shaking her head. "But I know that Jackson was out for a few minutes before he let me out again. Guess he checked his watch and realized he was supposed to be lettin' me handle the art stuff." Holt said.

"Why would you have let Jackson out?" Frankie asked, curious to understand Holt's unusual methods of planning. Holt laughed. "I couldn't remember which hallway you were supposed to be in and some of the walls up here move. I got a little stuck and needed to ask him to figure out the way to your hallway." He shrugged, Frankie laughing at the thought of how well Jackson handled the predicament his alter ego had placed him in this afternoon.

"Did he happen to say anything about, I dunno….not feeling well today?" she asked, thinking back on what Clawdeen said to her earlier when she thought she'd heard him the first time. Frankie was considering if she maybe had since Holt's explanation of getting stuck in the walls fit with what she had been about to suggest when Holt had surprised her.

Holt shrugged but paused before stopping at the top of the stairs. "Don't think so. If he wasn't, it must not be too bad since I ain't feelin' it yet. It's got to be a pretty good cold for it to get to me, or for him to have had it a while." Holt said, Frankie nodding along with him as she'd learned about that detail of their dual nature herself. "But it wouldn't be too surprising he wouldn't mention it to me. Not that I'd tell him if _I_ ever felt as weak as his normie side." He said, receiving an elbow jab from Frankie. "Okay, okay, I'll ask him later, but I'm sure we're fine." Holt said as he rubbed his side, grateful that she hadn't sent along an electrical jolt by accident too. "No concern for me?" he teased, but Frankie gave him a kiss to his cheek before he headed back down, passing Lagoona and Catrina on their way up.

"Hey you two." Frankie said as they started back into the hallway with the others. "Rochelle couldn't come?" she asked, Catrina shaking her head. "Not yet. She said she would try in a little while, but I'll help as best I can." She said with a shy smile that Frankie returned.

"Be warned. You should brace yourself for Cleo and Draculaura's own artistic 'expertise'" Lagoona said, the three of them returning to try and get some progress accomplished for the day, the portrait in the background continuing to slowly become more and more prominent in the background.

* * *

The next day at school was spent as usual, Frankie finding herself shadowing her boyfriend. "Frankie, I told you, Holt wasn't lying. I feel fine." Jackson said as they sat in class. "Yes, I got stuck in the walls, but they change according to a simple pattern that let me back out in under twenty minutes. But I don't think I was anywhere near where you and the others were setting things up." He said, taking notes from the board.

"But Clawdeen heard you. She thought for sure it was you." Frankie said, face taking on a thoughtful look as she tried to figure the mystery out. "She said it was faint but that it was slow too. Are you sure you're okay?" she asked, Jackson giving another sigh.

"Yes Frankie. Holt only left me with a green mustache at the end of the day courtesy of Heath." Jackson said, rubbing his face as he thought about how hard he'd had to scrub that night when Holt's transformation ended. Frankie didn't look convinced but did smirk at the idea of his cousin getting to show off his artistic skills on him as well as Clawd.

Classes finished up and they were back to hurriedly finishing up their set up for the rapidly approaching opening night for the art pieces. Jackson gave Frankie another reassurance that he wasn't hiding anything from her before giving her a hug, letting Frankie linger in his arms a little longer as she checked things out for herself. Pulling away she remembered Holt's suggestion from the following day, having tried to find the appropriate time to bring it up with him during the day but finding herself more focused on trying to see if she could get Jackson to trip up and just admit if he wasn't feeling well.

"Hey, can I ask you about something?" she asked, Jackson giving her a nod. "Well, when Holt did show up, after he knocked over one of the stands from his unsuccessful balancing act…." She began, Jackson shaking his head at the mention of his other half's stupidity, "…he said he found something of yours that he wanted to submit to Draculaura to have put up in the student area of the gallery." She said, Jackson's eyes widening as he realized what she must be talking about.

"Oh no…no…he showed you?" Jackson said, panicking a little. "Ugh….he makes me so….ooh, I'm gonna…" Jackson started to say, his frustration evident that he couldn't really do all that much to his alter ego without doing it to himself too. "How…how much did you…what did he…." He started to ask, Frankie smiling at his embarrassment.

"I was wondering why there were so many sketches of Draculaura…and of some human girls…and I think a couple were of a siren with the name 'Melody' in fancy letters…" she said, doing her best to sound like Cleo when she was hounding Deuce worse than Clawdeen with her sister over taking her stuff.

"Oh! Uh…that's um…Frankie, I…I can explain. Um…" Jackson started to stammer, nervously fidgeting under gaze as he tried to come up with something suitable to say to his girlfriend. Frankie held her look for as long as she could before the corners of her mouth quirked up and she laughed.

"Jackson, you're very meticulous. You dated each sketch too." Frankie said, embracing him again and letting her head rest on his chest, learning just how frazzled she'd made her boyfriend. "I could tell that they were from before we had decided to start going out the first time." She said, Jackson breathing a sigh of relief that she wasn't going to launch into an interrogation of all his previous crushes or girlfriends, however short the latter list might be. "But I would like to know why you kept that talent so secret. They're really good and Holt thought you and he could pull together some collaborative project." Frankie said.

"What's he really up to?" Jackson asked skeptically. Frankie sighed and looked patiently to her boyfriend. "I think he really meant it this time. Give it a shot." Frankie said to him, seeing Jackson still hesitant about the prospect of displaying his artwork. But he allowed Frankie to drag him back up with her if only to humor her good intentions as he considered what she said. As they got up to the hall, they found that the others had already made some 'improvements', a few plants placed here and there that added color to the room. Frankie sighed as she realized that this was sure to cause some issue with one of the two co-heads of the committee. But what had them both a little worried was that Heath was also there, supposedly to give Abbey some help, which he did seem to genuinely be doing.

"Hey Heath." Jackson said as he greeted his cousin, getting a small hi back as he tried to carry one of the pieces without his girlfriend's help. Seeing Draculaura, Jackson blushed again as he realized that she had likely seen the sketches he'd done of her. But the vampire brightened up when she saw Frankie with Jackson, coming over to talk with Frankie about something.

"Things are comin' together now that the Heathser's here." Heath said as he walked over to his cousin, trying to appear as though lifting some of the heavier objects hadn't winded him a little. Jackson just smirked at him, "Absolutely. Not like Clawd or Deuce could've lifted any of that." He said, knowing that Deuce had taken pity on their friend and found a way to rope him into his 'punishment' in the culinary arts portion of the culture event to keep him from having to deal with any more of Heath's help. He did wonder how Gil managed to stay away, but more importantly, why his cousin wouldn't be hanging around with Manny. Then again, the girls had probably been more concerned with the lesser of two evils when dealing with the two of them, and being Abbey's boyfriend, Heath had found himself getting to mess around with some of the new stuff that Holt had been playing with the day before.

"Hey. No need for them when I've got some massive firepower here." Heath said, flexing his arms to prove his point while Jackson just rolled his eyes. "And it's spreading. You've set the plant on fire…" He said as he saw his cousin unintentionally send one of his flames into the flowerpot when he'd been showing off. He expected to see the leafy plant go up in flames, but instead, all that happened was a hint of smoke in the air that could have come from Heath anyway.

"No I didn't. But I thought…." Heath said, the two boys looking at the plant in wonder. Jackson touched one of the leaves, finding it to be unharmed, turning to shrug at Heath in confusion. "Guess I was wrong. Sorry Heath." Jackson said, Heath looking a little prouder of himself for managing to not set anything on fire again.

"Hey, look at that." Catrina said, getting everyone's attention as she pointed to the mystery painting. "It changed again." She said, pointing out a portion of the painting that showed off where Jackson and Heath had stood next to the plant, shown in the painting to be on fire. The group looked away from the painting and back to the plant behind where Heath was standing.

"Did you do something to the painting? Add flames to it to give it some flare?" Cleo said in an accusatory manner. Heath huffed in frustration at the mummy's tone, not liking having everyone seem to look to him as the cause, even if that was often the case.

" _No_. Jackson said he thought he saw me catch it on fire but it's fine. No damage." Heath said, turning back around to check on the plant as they tried to figure things out. "Oh, we looked away and now it's just a charred plant. No more flames." Lagoona said, noticing the next change in the painting. "I wonder why these little things keep readjusting, but nobody shows up in the painting." She wondered aloud, the other girls voicing their confusion at it too as they crowded around the painting for another minute to see if there would be another change. But when it became apparent that there wasn't going to be anything else altered, they broke away with some disappointment.

"That is strange." Jackson said. "Any information on who gave the painting?" He asked, walking away from his spot beside Heath and exposing the plant completely to the now unblocked painting. Before one of the girls could give him an answer, the plant burst into flames and turned to ash far quicker than it should have done once on fire.

"Whoa!" Heath said, holding his hands up in a gesture of surrender. "I didn't do that. I didn't even touch it that time." He said, Abbey sliding the pot away from the piece of art Draculaura had set it next to before the flames did any damage. "Was that some sort of delayed combustion of something?" He asked, the others in the room looking just as confused.

"Okay. Really guys…" Jackson said, coming to stand in front of the painting. "Was there any information about who gave it to you or what it's supposed to be?" he asked, scrutinizing the image. He looked to see where the plant had been nothing but a blackened piece in a flowerpot moments before, only to find that it appeared in the painting again as a vibrantly green flower. "'Cuz it's back again in the painting just fine." He said, looking away to glance back at his friends, Abbey and Clawdeen dragging what was left now that it the flames were done, out of the room to be dumped out. He saw Cleo motioning to Draculaura that they shouldn't have the plants that close to the pieces after all, apparently attempting a compromise and suggesting that they be closer to the other side of the hall and lower to the ground in a sort of garden-like atmosphere. Seeing that he wasn't going to get an answer right away, he looked back to the painting to see the flower pot still at the end of the hall, even though he could hear that the girls had rounded the corner with it. He scrunched up his eyebrows as he tried to analyze the picture. He couldn't be sure, but he thought he saw an outline of at least one person in the room, but it was just the barest of an outline that could be his mind playing tricks on him. He wouldn't be surprised, having Holt lingering around often had him questioning things, but he couldn't ignore the way the hairs on the back of his neck stood up.

"Jackson, can you help with this?" Frankie's voice pulled him away from his observing the painting. He looked over to see her looking through some of their paperwork, no doubt the list of items and their information that he'd asked her for. "Yeah." He said, looking back at the painting to find that the second or two he'd taken his eyes off of it, the flower pot had been completely erased from the painting, and the outline not where he had seen it last. He took another second to try and find it, spotting it closer to where he would have been standing if he had shown up in the picture. Startled he took a step back, bumping into Catrina.

"Sorry Catrina. I didn't step on your tail, did I?" Jackson asked in concern, but the werecat shook her head. "I think you might want to keep your distance from this piece. Might want to just take it down." He said to her, Frankie calling out to him again. "Gives me the creeps – and not the good kind." He said, glancing back and finding himself pulled into scrutinizing the image again.

"Jackson! Come on!" Frankie said, irritation in her voice. "What are you two doing? It's not going anywhere." She said as Jackson walked over to her.

"I don't know about that Frankie." Jackson said, looking a little anxious. "It seems like something is trying to…" he said, but Frankie rolled her eyes.

"Jackson, it's a painting. It's weird and unique and fits right in at Monster High." She said, handing him the list where she found what he was looking for. "We found out yesterday that it has some writing on the back of it. Something about it supposed to have been at one point a portrait, but clearly it changes depending on where it is." She said while he looked over what little information they'd been given.

"You just have a donor name and a year?" He asked. "And the donor wanted the school to keep it. I can see why…something isn't quite right with it. I mean, look at Catrina." He said, pointing out where the werecat stood still in front of the painting. Not even Heath's loud voice as he apologized to the others for apparently setting something on fire after all, pulled her attention away.

"She's an artist and it's a fascinating piece. She was saying something about it being able to capture things so beautifully and she probably is just trying to understand and emulate it a little in her own works." Frankie said with a shrug, Jackson having to admit that her reason sounded more reliable than his paranoid worry about a weird painting.

"Can you tell me what it said on the back?" He asked Frankie, his girlfriend repeating what she remembered. But that didn't seem to help sate Jackson's curiosity, although he just sighed when he noticed the time. "Sorry Frankie, but Holt's supposed to be in the auditorium right now. I managed to persuade the orchestra to just humor Holt this once and he could make a recording as they played out the whole song and…well…hopefully that'll be enough for him. But it won't so when Holt gets tossed out for doing something stupid, you can vouch that I tried to be the diplomat here." He said, Frankie laughing as he made his exit.

Heath was essentially pushed out after his cousin too, Abbey and Clawdeen reemerging not too long after they'd left. "Is good thing we still have some time left to be setting things up. Might need all that time to get through everything." Abbey said as she looked at what they still had to unpack, along with the various labels they'd have to write out that explained the titles and other information on the artwork. Frankie nodded and walked over to stand beside Catrina, admiring the painting too.

"It just seems to suck you in. All that you can see is how important the beauty is. You can't even see the brushstrokes, like it's taken the room and just made it to fit within the frame." Catrina said, Frankie nodding along with her. She and the others wouldn't admit it to Jackson, but it wasn't the ongoing style battle between Cleo and Draculaura that was eating up all their time, their curiosity over the painting leaving them to spend far more time playing around with it than was necessary.

"I know. But nothing seems to compare after looking after it." Lagoona said, coming to stand beside Catrina. "It's weird, but it's just like, after seeing it….I don't want to…it makes you feel like being able to feel and enjoy beautiful things is something that should be the ultimate goal for the day. You know?" She said, trying to phrase the more sensual nature the simple image seemed to exude as they stood pondering it. "I don't mean to sound so self-centered, but I can't help it when I stay too long around the painting. It's just a shame that life can't imitate the art and everyone just be able to pursue their own pleasure." She said, the other two nodding along with her.

"It's not self-centered. Art can definitely carry a message or morality behind it, but why can't it just be about capturing beauty?" Frankie said. "This painting, I dunno, it's not grand… but it is. I can't help but think the same way." she said to Lagoona.

"I know. I haven't been able to finish my project because of it." Catrina said. "I normally enjoy creating my pieces, but I can't seem to stay away. And it makes me think that maybe I should do a portrait like this was supposed to have been." She said, the three of them not noticing how much closer they were getting to the painting. "After all, one should find beauty in oneself too." she said, running a hand down her face. The other two also seemed to consider that too, although the looks on their faces as they thought over it didn't seem to be focusing on everyone's inner worth.

"Hey, you three find something else to focus on?" Clawdeen said, breaking them out of their reverie, the three of them fidgeting in inner shame at having such narcissistic thoughts from something like the painting. They quickly took a few steps away from it, Frankie considering if Jackson was possibly right about it being cursed or something.

"Hey Cleo…." Frankie called out to her friend, hoping that the mummy would be able to pick up on any possible indicators that the painting was more than just enchanted. Cleo stopped unfolding one of the projects that happened to be some textile piece with brightly colored patterns that she'd been trying to determine belonged with the ancient Greek style items. Frankie motioned for her to come over, the mummy indicating that she was doing something at the moment. "Cleo. We need your expertise." Frankie said, sure that appealing to her friend's own bit of narcissism might get her to take a moment to inspect the painting. Cleo smiled at being praised for something, Frankie relieved when she put down the project carefully and came over. "Can you tell if an item is cursed rather than just enchanted? This painting gave Jackson a funny feeling earlier and I think we might want to just… _check_ …before we let anybody in and get them all cursed." She said, Cleo beginning to scrutinize the painting.

"There it is again." Clawdeen said as Cleo got in the way of Lagoona and Catrina from going back to staring at the painting again. "Jackson's gotta be on his way in here again." The werewolf said, alerting Frankie to what she was hearing. But looking out the window, she could see Holt and Heath doing something outside that apparently required more paint even though the murals weren't on that side of the building.

"Can't be. Holt's outside with Heath right now." Frankie said, turning to her friend in confusion. "You're positive it isn't, um, some monster's in here?" she asked, a small blush forming on her face. Clawdeen also had a little blush too, but she shook it off faster before the others could tell. "No. I know what the others' sound like. Not that different but distinct enough. And it isn't mine so…" she trailed off for the others to follow what she was suggesting.

"Invisibilly?" Draculaura called out, expecting to see the invisible boy materialize or at least say something now that he'd been found out, but the room still remained silent. She shrugged to her best friend as though to say 'nice try', but Clawdeen was adamant that she was hearing something until her ears suddenly stopped twitching. "Huh…it was there and now it's not." She said, looking around the room once more. "I think I need a break." She said with a roll of her eyes, heading back down the hallway, the others agreeing with her at how unsettled they'd seemed to have made themselves for no reason. All but Frankie remained in the hall, claiming to want to get a few more things up before she joined them. Once they'd left, she turned back to the painting to test out a theory she had. She picked up one art piece and moved it to another stand that currently had nothing on it, all the time watching the painting to see if it would react at all. Standing there for a minute and seeing nothing happening, she figured the painting only changed now and then, taking a deep breath and slowly blinking her eyes to get the tension out of them from staring at the painting. But as soon as she looked back at the painting, she found that it had changed.

"Huh, guess you need to 'be alone' to change. Got some stage fright?" she laughed, her voice echoing around the room now that there wasn't anyone else in there. She shrugged and intended to walk toward the painting to have a chance to look at it alone, when she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up as though someone else was staring back at her and she just couldn't see them. She felt the painting pull her in again, but when she thought she heard a whisper she turned away, not noticing the outline that Jackson had been watching briefly take an a more solid appearance before disappearing again when she looked back. Warily she took a few steps back before leaving the room, the outline shifting across the canvas from one side of the frame to the other.

* * *

"This is gonna be awesome to watch Holt" Heath said as he and Holt filled a few of the horned instruments with some paint. "I can't wait to see their faces." He said as he emptied the last of what he had, his cousin motioning for him to hide behind the curtain as they watched, snickering at the appropriate time when the students blew their hardest into the paint-clogged instruments and forced the still-wet paint out onto their neighbors.

"We better get goin' before they figure it out." Holt said, he and Heath laughing as they scurried out of the auditorium. "Serves 'em right for not following through on their word. Jackson wouldn't lie to me about talking to them – normie's not gutsy enough to set me up like that. They're just too high-strung." Holt said, laughing a little more. "Ain't all like that but some of 'em think them and their music the upper class of all music. I know not everybody agrees with my beats for some stupid reason, but them saying they don't like it _at all_ is ridiculous. See if I let them party at my next gig…" Holt said, Heath shaking his head at his cousin's attitude.

"Sure they think they're high class in the music world, but I'm sure they like your style too. Just not together when they're trying to perform." Heath said with a shrug. "But that one guy got it right on his nose…" He laughed again as they made their way back outside to find their friends. Instead they found the girls all sitting by the fountain taking a break.

"I thought you wanted us out so you could get some work done?" Heath asked, looking to his girlfriend. "We did but needed to take break. Painting give Abbey shivers – is hard to do for yeti." She said.

"Then where's Frankie?" Holt asked, looking for his girlfriend. Clawdeen just shrugged. "She said she'd be right down. I'm sure she'll be here in a minute." She said, Holt looking ready to just check things out himself. "Do _not_ go back up there. You already broke one piece of art and cracked a stand. She'll be right …there she is." Clawdeen said, Holt turning to see Frankie walking over to the others.

"Frankie-Fine!" Holt said with a smile, wrapping an arm around her as she got closer. "How 'bout you and I…" he started to suggest but Frankie shook her head, instead pulling him into a hug. "Hey, what's the matter?" he asked.

"Can you do me a favor, Holt?" She asked, the Hyde giving her a nod with a confused expression on his face. "Great. I need to know Clawdeen and I aren't losing our minds." She said, pulling him back to the building.

"Not so sure he's the best to ask about that then" Heath said, Holt shooting him a peeved look. " I ain't outta my mind Heath." He said, Heath snickering.

"No. That's the only place you ever stay put once Jackson's out." He said, Abbey smacking him for being insensitive to his cousin, but Holt just found it humorous and continued after Frankie.

"So what big, bad thing am I supposed to be takin' care of for ya?" Holt asked as they climbed the stairs. Frankie looked a little nervous at admitting what had her so frazzled but Holt's pestering wore her down before they were back in the hall with the painting. Stopping just before the corner, she held Holt back from going inside.

"Okay. Just…don't laugh." She started out, Holt already looking amused at what she might say with that sort of an introduction. "Remember how I told you that Clawdeen thought she heard your heartbeat the other day when you got stuck in the walls?" she asked, Holt nodding as though to get her to move along to her main point, patience not really his strong suit. "Well, she heard it again. But we all saw you outside at the time, so clearly it isn't you she's been hearing. And…and…it's not Invisibilly. And when it was just me in the room, I swear it talked to me." Frankie said, Holt trying to keep up. He remained silent for a minute before breaking out into a smile.

"Alright, you got me…" He said with a laugh. "Knew you'd learn a thing or two from me. But why drag me all the way up here…unless there was something in else you had in mind." He said, catching her in a kiss.

"No…Holt" Frankie said, around their kiss. "I'm serious. It frightened me – and not in a good way. Jackson said there was something off about it too and the girls feel the same way. Please…" Frankie said, pulling away from her boyfriend. Holt sighed and rolled his eyes. "Alright." He repeated, backing away from her. "I'll save you from the scary painting. It ain't nothing but the hallway. Not much to look at." He said, walking around the corner to approach the thing. He stood in front of it as though expecting it to suddenly do something but turned back around to Frankie when it simply hung on the wall.

"Completely quiet. Not even a…." Holt started to call over to where he knew Frankie to be hiding around the corner. But his sudden break in speech had her peeking over to see him practically glaring at the painting. "Shut up. Shut up." He said, grasping at his head. "You're not…" He said, but turned when Frankie had gotten close to him.

"Holt? You okay?" she asked, reaching out to him. But Holt roughly picked her up, carrying her back to where she'd been hiding. "Holt! What's going on?" she asked.

"You were right. It was talking. And I wasn't likin' what it was saying either." He said. "I heard it as soon as I came around the corner, but I thought it was Jackson just messin' around big time at first but he wouldn't say things like that. Definitely not." He said, peeking around the corner again only to growl a little and have his hair light up. "I'm torchin' this thing" He said, calling up a flame and marching forward.

"No! You can't do that!" Frankie said, pulling him back. "We have to keep it up at least for the first night before Headmistress Bloodgood will allow us to take anything down and replace it with something else. Part of the rules for taking donations." She argued with him, but Holt didn't seem to want to look at her.

"Well, rules are made to be broken. I do it all the time." Holt said, earning himself a frustrated huff from his girlfriend. "Frankie, cursed or not, there's something trying to get out of that painting. It's sucking energy from you girls. I can see it by how tired you are since the last time I saw ya." Holt said, holding a hand against Frankie's cheek. "If you gotta keep it up, I ain't gonna take my eyes off of it." He said.

"I think that might not be such a bad idea. It doesn't seem to change when someone is watching. It has a life of its own, but it's like…it's beautiful and calm at first and then becomes scary and …" Frankie said, trying to describe what she'd tried to analyze and comprehend herself.

"Like an alter ego?" Holt asked, facing Frankie again. Frankie's eyes widened as she realized what Holt was asking. "No. Well, like a double standard. It's got a gorgeous frame like it's high society but then the inner portion as you look deeper and deeper gets less beautiful…" she tried to explain. "Holt, you and Jackson both have beautiful qualities. This isn't like how you two are." She said, Holt nodding along with her.

"Got that right. I have my own morals." Holt said, Frankie smirking a little as she recalled Jackson often questioning just what Holt's morals might be. But she couldn't deny that the Hyde did have some standard he worked around, particularly in regards to her and their friends. He had some anger issues that he wasn't too proud to not admit to, but he often tried to make up for his temper tantrums, even when not pressured to do so by anyone else. "But whatever's in that painting probably got put in there because _it_ didn't have _any_ morals. If we're careful, it should stay there. If there's an actual 'it' we're dealin' with." Holt said, not listening and walking back over to the painting.

"You need people to say how beautiful you are in order to get through to them. But I can hear you already." Holt said to the painting, watching as the oils seemed to start to run with the heat he was casting off. "That's right. You know about my family; seems only fair you tell me who _you_ are." He said, Frankie doing her best not to peak around the corner as badly as she wanted to. "A surprise? For me? You shouldn't…" Holt mockingly said. "If I don't figure it out, I know someone who will and he has a hard time keepin' secrets from me for very long… You can't make me give into those ideas, however tempting they are…I have my own ways of havin' that kind of fun, and it ain't gonna be at the expense of…oh, if I could light you up right now, I would." Holt said, prompting Frankie to call out to him to remind him not to just do what he wanted.

"No…I ain't under anybody's control. I'm choosin' to wait. If you try anythin' else, I'd be willin' to risk a detention or two…" Frankie heard him say, the maliciousness in his voice scaring her. It wasn't often that the Hyde would be more aggressively terrifying, but Holt had been known to let his more unrestrained attitude get carried away now and then. "You and I are not alike. Hydes might have been a product of that Henry Jekyll's curiosity, but you…Frankie, let's go!" Holt concluded, storming past her and grabbing her arm a little harder than he probably meant. Frankie let him drag her back outside, the others noticing how visibly upset their irascible friend was at the moment. Heath sighed as he recognized another potential meltdown headed their way, but Holt just yanked his headphones off to leave Jackson standing there in front of his friends in confusion.

"Uh oh…why are you all staring at me? What did Holt do now?" He asked cautiously. "And why does it involve such an awful headache?" he asked, grabbing at his head.

"Holt had a long talk with the painting up in the gallery." Frankie said, earning several looks of confusion. "Apparently it is enchanted and it has a mind of its own. Holt said he could hear it loud and clear and he was not pleased with whatever it was saying." Frankie said, rubbing her wrist from where Holt had held her a little tighter than was comfortable. "I told him what was going on with it and he said that whatever was inside the painting had no morals at all."

"If he had such a low opinion of it, then it's got to be pretty bad." Clawdeen said, ignoring the 'hey!' from Jackson, even though he had said similar statements too. But since it was still technically him, Jackson seemed to feel the need to give some defense. "But, um….not to sound mean…" Draculaura interjected. "But how can we be sure it wasn't just Holt hearing things? I mean…." She started to say when Jackson shot her a look. "We all know he's off in his own little world a lot of the time. What if this painting just, amplifies those thoughts and feelings? It does seem to need to have something in front of it before it changes or does anything." She said, catching Jackson off guard.

"But Clawdeen heard…" Frankie started to say but Cleo interrupted with her own thoughts. "I didn't see anything that would indicate a curse. It's possible that those were just, echoes, reflected back at a later time. It seemed to suck inside it what should've happened to the plant before spitting it back out – that could be all it was. And you did say you were stuck in the walls yesterday. You can't be certain where you were at the time when Clawdeen heard it the first time." She said, trying to find a reasonable explanation with the very unreasonable goings on that usually occurred at their school.

"That could make sense. But let's be careful anyway." Lagoona said, the others nodding. "Catrina? You said you wanted to work in the gallery for a while? If we all go up, maybe it won't be so bad. Safety in numbers, right?" she asked, but Jackson wasn't looking too convinced.

"Has Ghoulia finished with any of the research on some of the historical pieces?" He asked. "We might be able to figure out more if she's got something for us to base a foundation on." He said, already heading off to find their zombie friend who had taken the smart route and avoided another afternoon filled with Cleo's and Draculaura's arguments by volunteering to do some research. With that, it seemed the group decided to go back to what they'd been trying to do, so long as they could find a way not to let the painting pull them in again.

* * *

Heath ran to catch up with his cousin, not certain if he wanted to go back up in the room with the creepy painting. But since Abbey was going to be there, he figured that they better find something quick to figure out how to deal with the art piece, especially since tomorrow was supposed to be the first night for their performances and exhibits that the rest of the month had been leading up to. On their way there, Clawd and Deuce met up with them, snaking on what looked like baked goods of some kind.

"Oh, come on." Heath whined, his hunger making itself known to him. "You couldn't have brought some for everybody?" He asked, the other two laughing at their friend's banter.

"Sorry Heath. You'll get to have some later." Deuce said, with a pat to his friend's shoulder. "But what's got you two dudes so worked up?" the gorgon asked, noticing their agitation. Clawd picked up on it too, stopping Jackson from just walking off to get to the library.

"Explain." The werewolf said, eyeing Jackson with a look that called for answers. "Maybe we can help." He said, Jackson sighing but not putting up much of an argument as he explained what the girls had told him and what he'd experienced too.

"So, there's a haunted painting?" Clawd said, clearly not seeing a problem with the situation. "That tends to happen here." He said with a smirk, Deuce looking confused as to why his normally level-headed friend was getting worked up.

"No. No ghosts involved that we can tell." Heath said with a shrug. "I didn't hear anything, but apparently your sister and Frankie heard its heartbeat and its whispering – like it's alive or something. And Holt had a long talk with it apparently." He said, the other two giving Jackson amused and curious expressions.

"I know, I know. Crazier than usual for Holt and I, but there _is_ something off. We're on our way to Ghoulia to find out more." Jackson said, urging his friend to let him pass. "I'm not sure if I'd prefer Cleo's suggestion or to find out there's something else after us." He said.

"What did Cleo say this time?" Deuce asked with a shake of his head at his girlfriend's sometimes less than caring of others' feelings. "I'm sure she meant well." He said in her defense before Jackson even began.

"She said it was all in Holt's head. My head. Our head." Jackson rambled, gesturing with his hands as he talked. "That the enchanted painting seems to pick up on things as it learns and then spits them back out at a later time. But I think it's getting faster if that's the case. And only a matter of time before it jumps ahead of whoever it's trying to copy." He said as they turned into the library's entrance, spotting Ghoulia at one of the computers. She gave a wave and moaned a greeting to them, motioning for them to join her over at one of the tables.

"Sorry dude." Deuce said with a pat to his friend's shoulder. "She didn't mean to say you were crazy." He said, but Jackson flinched. "She didn't. Do _you_ think I'm crazy?" he asked, turning to face the gorgon.

"Only sometimes. Everybody is." Deuce rushed to say, plastering a smile on his face to try and remedy his friend's hurt feelings. "But that's not why we're here." He said, Jackson seeing the plea to move on and taking the lead Deuce offered.

"Hey Ghoulia." Jackson said, sitting down next to her. "You find anything on that painting yet? Wasn't it supposed to have been a portrait of some Hallward guy?" He asked, Ghoulia moaning that she couldn't find much, just that he had also been a painter.

"So maybe it isn't a painting of him?" Heath suggested, Jackson finding it to be a pretty good start for another line of inquiry into the piece. "Maybe you'll find something else about it if you did a random search. Type 'creepy flaming talking paintings'" Heath said, ending the streak Jackson thought he was going on. Clawd and Deuce also shook their heads, Ghoulia chuckling a little.

"Okay. Let's try something else." Jackson said. "We don't have a lot of time before we should be heading home today, so let's just see if there are any records of the Watton family that donated it in any census records from around the time it was painted." He said to Ghoulia, who wrote it down in her notebook, moaning that the library was going to close before even she could pull up that information.

"So then, tomorrow?" Clawd asked, a bit of worry in his voice should the painting cause any more trouble. But Ghoulia moaned that was probably the best they could do for now, unless they wanted to meet up at the public library later to try and figure things out.

"Do I have to?" Heath complained, sounding very much like he was going to give a moan similar to Ghoulia's. "I usually avoid that place unless my parents make me go with Jackson." He said, his cousin sighing once more.

"No Heath. I'll handle it. Maybe Frankie or some of the other girls will be up for it too." He said, the group heading back out. "Otherwise, we have to wait until sometime tomorrow to figure things out. That'll give the painting all day to have other students be affected by it." He said, wondering if the girls would continue with the plan of showing the gallery off to students after lunch in case they couldn't get to any of the evening programs.

* * *

As it turned out, some of the orchestra students made getting out of the school a little more difficult, Holt triggered by one of them so that he could confront his pranker. Unfortunately, Holt wasn't in the mood for someone yelling at him and he'd shoved the guy into the wall hard enough to convince him to stay on the floor and let him leave. This meant that when the group got to school the next day, Ghoulia had been disappointed in Jackson for not showing up at the library to meet her. But she did share with the girls what she'd found during one of their classes together, certain that the information would find its way to Jackson at some point, since she did put it up on the online version of their exhibit.

"So Hallward painted the thing, but it wasn't originally a portrait of him. And the Watton family only had it when a Lord Henry bought it at an auction from a…what was it? An estate sale of a Mr. Gray? That doesn't say all that much about the painting Ghoulia." Draculaura said. "Maybe we were just imagining things and letting the stress of the whole thing get to us. It was more work than we thought and it's not over yet." The vampire sighed, doodling in her notebook as she looked more tired than usual.

"I have to agree with you on that." Cleo said, yawning. "I couldn't help but need to get back to the gallery before school even started…just to check on things." She said.

"You wanted to sit with the painting, didn't you?" Abbey asked, a note of accusation in her voice. "You wanted it all to yourself. Only about you." She said.

"So what if I did? I deserve it." Cleo said with her typical hand gesture, only it looked a little more sluggish than usual. "Beauty like mine is the only kind that'll end up being reflected in the painting. It told me so." She said.

"Ugh…" Clawdeen scoffed. "It wasn't talking to you first. I heard it before any of you did. It clearly likes me best and has been after my attention." She said, causing Abbey to laugh. "Yes, but you not pick it up first." She said with a bit of a smirk.

"Oh, enough with the fighting. I'm too tired." Frankie said, rubbing her eyes. "The painting's getting to us. It's going to end up pulling us in or making us turn ugly inside and outside too." She said, Cleo rolling her eyes.

"Frankie, it's just a painting." She said. "But I see what you're saying. It's too tempting to not want to be around. I think Catrina might have spent the night in that room with her projects." She said.

"Projects? I thought she only was going to do one?" Draculaura asked, obviously trying to recall if she'd somehow missed something with being so tired and preoccupied with the painting.

"I guess the painting inspired her." Abbey said. "Did Jackson and Holt ever get around to being inspired themselves in collaborative project?" she asked Frankie, receiving only a shrug in response. "I thought they say wanting to be trying this?" she asked, getting a shush from their teacher that normally would've admonished the yeti but Abbey pushed forward anyway.

"Holt's been pushier than usual with Jackson over this whole painting thing. To be honest, Jackson's worried that Cleo's theory was right and I think they're butting heads again…you know, metaphorically." Frankie said, stretching a little. "But if Catrina spent the night, where is she today?" Frankie wondered aloud, the bell startling them all into a more awakened state.

"Maybe taking a catnap somewhere." Lagoona suggested. "I know I wouldn't mind sleepin' with the fishes right now myself, just so I can enjoy the opening of the gallery." She said, the others also finding the idea of a nap particularly inviting at the moment.

"If we just wait in the hall, then we can get some sleep and not worry about being late to the opening. We can miss lunch, right?" Clawdeen suggested, the others following her up to the hallway except for Ghoulia, who wanted to see if she might get the chance to meet up with Jackson for any more last-minute efforts to find answers about the painting. Walking inside the hallway they had set up for the first night's showing, they found Catrina standing in front of the painting.

"There you are. I guess we just missed each other this morning." Cleo said to Catrina, but the other didn't turn around to greet them. "How come you didn't say anything to me?" the mummy asked, wondering why the werecat was still so focused on the painting to the point of ignoring the others.

"Because it was the only time I could leave." Catrina said, continuing to look at the painting. "If nobody's watching it anymore, the man inside might get out." She said, causing the others to worry that perhaps she was more sleep deprived than them.

"What are you talking about? I thought you said the painting was inspiring you to create more of your own works?" Frankie asked, standing alongside the werecat.

"Yes. And I think that's what it wanted." Catrina said, taking a shaky breath. "I set up in here to use that inspiration, but look at what I made." She said, gesturing vaguely over to the side of the hall where a bunch of half-finished work lay. "I started out fine and there was color and everything, but it was pulled out somehow. Eventually I heard the whispers louder and when I finally looked at the painting, well…" she said, pointing to it.

The girls finally took a moment to deeply look at the painting more than the passing glance they had given it in their concern over their friend. The outer edge portion of the canvas continued to reflect the hall, but towards the middle, it looked more and more like a Victorian seating area had been painted over by the image of the hallway, slowly reemerging for them to see. They gasped at the strange new development. "I couldn't look away otherwise more would change. And at one point, I thought I saw a man sitting in one of those chairs, but I blinked and now he's hiding somewhere else in the painting. I'm afraid if I look back to see if the room is changing too." she said, Cleo looking behind them to check.

"No, it's just the painting." She said, turning back around. "I think we might want to just back up." She suggested, the others taking her advice and backing away slowly, keeping their eyes on the painting. When they were a good distance away, they saw that the painting began to lose the underpainting of the sitting area, fading back into the image of the hall again. But this time, there were a few alterations to the room too.

"Why are there no curtains in that corner?" Draculaura asked, pointing out that one of the windows looked as though the curtains had fallen to the floor. Taking the chance to look away, the others walked away from the painting to see if there was something out of place.

"Maybe they were earlier and one of the teachers fixed it? The painting seems to be going haywire anyway since there's more than one image on the canvas apparently." Catrina suggested, rubbing her tired eyes. "I guess I was just being paranoid. But I thought I saw a man's silhouette." She said with a sigh. "I need to get some real sleep and get back to finishing my projects." She said, the others giving her a sympathetic look, all of them finding themselves a little uneasy around the painting.

But all thoughts of sleeping for a few minutes before the student showing were gone, Catrina's worrisome suspicions lingering in their minds even after their friend had left to finish her projects again someplace other than in the sight of the painting. But their absence at lunch clearly wasn't overlooked, Clawd showing up shortly with Deuce and Gil to see what was up. The girls explained what had happened with Catrina, voicing their concerns about what the painting might be up to as if it had a mind of its own. None of them had heard the whispers like Clawdeen or Frankie, or even Cleo had claimed they'd heard. Clawd had given into his sister's begging and did his best to try and hear anything, but the painting was apparently as silent as any other painting, at least in regards to actual physical voice for him to hear.

"I think you girls are just stressed and psyching each other out with this thing." Clawd said as he tried to console his worried sister and girlfriend, their friends looking to him and the other guys to do anything at this point to ease their concerns. "There's nothing but a weird picture. Maybe there are more images that had been painted on the canvas over the years, like you said, but it's just showing different rooms." He said.

"Yeah. As much as Jackson and I are good friends, he's been known to get into arguments with himself that _aren't_ just in his head…" Deuce said with a smirk as he thought about his dual-natured friend. "Holt was already agitated according to what Heath told Manny. He told me in class about how the orchestra blew him off again and that might have contributed to…whatever he thought he heard." He said, walking over to Cleo. "Did you hear it actually say the words you said it told you, or did it just seem like that's what you heard? This is a castle after all and can get drafty here and there. With you girls all scared…um… _anxious_ …" Deuce was saying, rephrasing what he was trying to say based on the look Cleo sent to him, "Maybe your minds just twisted it to sound like words. You know, like how you can see shapes in clouds…" He tried to conclude, looking less sure of himself.

But Frankie nodded, seeing where he was going with his point. "I suppose I could've just been jumpy. And Holt can get worked up too…" she said, sounding like she was trying to convince herself too. "But I still think we might want to mark off on the floor or something, a safe distance for people to view the painting." She said, walking over to grab some duct tape to mark the floor.

"If it's something to do with draining energy to make new images, then more people coming closer and staring at it for a while would give it plenty of energy to rearrange things." Gil said. "Why don't you girls try to focus more attention on the other areas of the room? You could put more light over here…" He started to say, pulling back on one of the curtains to give a little more light. But given the amount of rearrangement by Cleo and Draculaura, the curtain rod had gotten a little lose. "Like in the painting. Maybe it's suggesting…" Gil was saying, but the curtain slid down onto the floor, the water monster taking a step back to keep out of harm's way should the curtain rod come down too.

"Whoa. You okay bro?" Clawd asked as he looked over what had happened, he and Deuce looking to see how it had come down in case they needed to put it back up. Gil nodded, looking a little sheepish at the mess he made.

"How'd it know that the curtains were gonna be knocked down?" Draculaura asked, looking between the painting and the curtains on the floor.

"That doesn't count." Abbey said, looking skeptically at her friend. "Gil touch curtains only because he looked at painting first. Self-fulfilling prophecy." She said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"But it still showed up in the painting." Frankie said, looking curiously at the painting. "Somehow it's like the painting is reaching out. More than any other kind of painting can do. I mean, the stand Holt knocked over had a dent in it and you can see it in the painting, but it's fine now. And the plant would've remained just fine if it hadn't been exposed to its charred portrait." She said, trying to figure out how the painting worked.

"But the student showing is still supposed to happen. If it needs more people to look at it for it to get energy to rework itself, we need someone to watch it at all times to make sure it doesn't change." Cleo said, thinking things over to try and find a way to get around the strange painting. "It's weird how ironic the thing is – it needs people to look at it, but it can't make any changes or movements within it unless nobody's watching." She said, walking over to stand beside Deuce.

"You sure I can't just turn it to stone for a while?" Deuce offered, seeing how much the others were affected, Gil and Clawd working with Abbey and Lagoona to put the curtains back up. Turning to Cleo, he saw her biting her bottom lip as she thought about his suggestion. "It would still show up the image it has now, but maybe keep sealed whatever energy flow's going on there." he said, but Cleo shook her head.

"No. If one of the Watton family members shows up and sees it like that, the school could get in trouble and the others too." Cleo said, Deuce shaking his head at how she wasn't lumping herself in with the group if they were called out for something.

"So who's volunteering to be spotter for the painting?" Clawdeen asked, ears twitching again. "I think that if whatever Catrina thought was moving around inside the painting has a mind of its own, it might be picking up on our ideas" she said, pointing over to the painting for the others to see other things in the picture looking tossed about here and there inconspicuously. "And it's not pleased we're catching onto it." She said.

"Let's just hope it doesn't get enough energy to actually rearrange things for real out here in the real world like it did in the painting." Draculaura said, looking over to Clawd for some reassurance. "If it does, then Catrina's worries might not be so out there." She said, letting Clawd hold her to his side as he shook his head.

"Didn't you listen to what Deuce was saying? I think there might be something going on, but constantly worrying about it has got all of you bouncing more and more scary ideas off each other." Clawd said, rubbing Draculaura's back comfortingly.

"We still need to draw straws for who plays 'Where's Waldo' with the painting. And Ghoulia's off doing more research." Lagoona said, not looking particularly eager to volunteer for that role.

"Heath could do it." Abbey suggested, but the looks and denials she got from the others had her looking a little more doubtful. "But he need only to watch it. He couldn't do anything to cause problem if positioned away from other pieces. And he could torch it if things looking more troubling." She said with a shrug.

"How about Holt? Even if Holt was only hearing echoes or something, it'll keep him satisfied that nothing's happening either." Deuce said, earning a similar response from the others for his suggestion. "Look dudes, if there is something that's trying to manipulate things, you said that those two were butting heads in a way that would make even Manny proud." He said, Frankie nodding as he looked to her for some support.

"I suppose. Holt would really be focused just on the painting and not fiddling with the other pieces like Heath might. I know you guys are going to be in other places next period but if you could ask Holt…" Frankie said, trailing off as the guys nodded and started to head out.

For the next ten minutes before the lunch period ended, the girls did their best to put the finishing touches throughout the gallery, adding the barcodes that could be scanned and would connect to the online portion of their exhibit through students' phones. It was hoped that a high turn out to see the exhibits would help in determining the displays of the student projects that were to be rotated in the next hall over, making it seem more interactive like Spectra had suggested during one of her brief visits to see how all the different programs were getting developed. Frankie had hoped that it might be through this more back-door way of presenting student pieces, Jackson and Holt's planned project might get a chance to be displayed for her to see. But if not, then she might still be able to see the rough draft of it online like others were crafting. They were both anxiously awaiting to see how well their work would be received by the students and teachers, as well as dreading the possibility that the painting might cause more problems. They were almost completely finished with the last-minute labels when Jackson walked into the hall.

"I thought Holt was supposed to be the watch-dog." Clawdeen said, apologetically smiling to Jackson as she tried not to sound like she was trying to promote Holt's company. But Jackson just gave a small nod to her as he passed, walking over to Frankie. She gave him a smile of her own when he got closer, but she could see he was looking warily at the painting.

"Hey Frankie. Sorry I missed out on yesterday afternoon, but Holt was really unsettled – I think he's actually scared about something." Jackson said as he and Frankie stood behind the tape. "But…" he started to say before pausing and looking over his shoulder at the others to see if they were watching him for his reaction. He'd been in the room with the painting too, but not since Holt had a meltdown in front of it. He could see the others trying not to overtly watch them, and he sighed as he realized he might as well just continue what he was talking about with Frankie. "Frankie…there _is_ a whisper. But I think it might be more than one – like when Holt and I get that crossover in our thoughts sometimes." He said, seeing Frankie looking confused at what he was saying.

"Okay. Well…maybe you shouldn't say that to anybody else. _I_ understand…" She rushed to say at Jackson's hurt look that he had at his interpretation of her words to mean that she doubted him. "But like Deuce was saying…it could just be us imposing our own worries on whatever's going on. I mean…I haven't heard it again and so long as we don't get too close, it doesn't seem to be able to draw enough energy to do much of anything." She said, Jackson still looking hurt at not being believed. Frankie gave him a hug and after another minute of quick conversation, Holt was back to act as their security guard for that one painting, Frankie noticing that it really did seem like the painting couldn't figure out what it wanted to do with Holt being around. There were some changes here and there, but they were few and far between as Holt basically glared at it the entire time.

"Oooh, this one looks pretty cool." A student said, crossing over the line Frankie had set up and reaching out more to touch the painting. Immediately Holt was practically on top of the purple ghoul, her turquoise hair whipping around as Holt pulled her aside.

"Yo! Don't cross the line means _don't cross the line_!" Holt said, his hair swaying as it flamed up. "Look, _don't_ touch. And back up." He said, earning the attention of the others in the room. The girls had been pleasantly surprised to have had such a large amount of students come in, even though many probably only did so as an excuse to miss some of their last period. But Holt's actions had them nervously watching him, the girl standing still as she stared back at him. "Now!" Holt said, prompting her to back up even further, her friend coming over and urging her to leave.

"Way to go, Holt. That was smooth." Clawdeen mumbled, holding her face in her hand at their friend's less than subtle way of keeping people away from the painting. His intimidating stance and short comments had been enough to keep people away without questioning why he felt the need to be like that, the others attributing it to one of his more angry moods he'd been known to get into from time to time. But now it seemed like everyone wanted to get a glimpse of the piece Holt had been so worked up over.

"Frankie! Time to call it quits!" Holt shouted over to her when he had to reach behind him to stop a braver student from going behind his back to get closer to the painting. But Holt's aggressive nature had most people backing away, giving a few compliments or other remarks to the girls as they left. "I know you need to keep it for a little longer, but it won't shut up now…." Holt said, tilting his head as though trying not to hear something that was loudly being directed at him. As much as his angry mood had been a deterrent to keeping people from getting too close for most of the period, the last comment seemed to really do the trick and left them with an empty gallery since no one wanted to be around if Holt had indeed gone completely crazy for the moment.

"Okay, Holt, it's all done now." Frankie said, grabbing her boyfriend's hand. He had turned back to the painting to intently scrutinize it again, his attention completely on the painting. Frankie found herself unable to keep from taking a look too, trying to see what Holt might be seeing.

The painting did seem to be reacting to having had so many more people focus on it, but it remained pretty much the same with a few exceptions. As everyone's attention had been on Holt, Frankie realized that no one had been watching the painting and it had started to morph again in areas that showed that other image that Catrina had pointed out to them. Looking back to the room, she gasped as she noticed the walls had taken on another hue as well, the other girls following her line of sight to see the small adjustments that had gone on in the room while they'd been acting as hosts for the student preview. They weren't something incredibly noticeable, but they did wonder what would have happened if Holt hadn't been there to be their bodyguard, even if he did request that they play some of his music to help get through the showing.

"Holt, let's leave. Okay? Whatever you think it's telling you, just ignore it and come on." Frankie said, tugging a little harder on Holt's hand to get his attention. She flinched a little when he looked back at her with an intense look that he'd only rarely shared with her – he was actually afraid. He looked back once more before following Frankie and the others.

"Sorry Frankie. I know I could've handled that better." Holt said once they were back downstairs, Cleo rolling her eyes at his understatement. "But that painting really does have something going on with it that ain't right. You didn't hear _any_ of that this time Clawdeen?" Holt asked, the werewolf looking genuinely confused over what he was saying. Holt sighed, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "Fine. I'm gonna go get my stuff ready to barge in on those orchestra students tonight. See you around Frankie." Holt said, Frankie nodding to him as he left. She waited for him to be completely out of earshot before turning back around to face her friends, knowing that they were sure to say something about what happened.

"So…this was his version of subtle?" Draculaura asked with a raised eyebrow. "I know we've hung around with him plenty of times, but not usually in an art gallery with Holt. That's more Jackson, and I think maybe we should've let the half _not_ hearing multiple voices in his head try to handle the painting." She said, looking to the others to see if they had anything to add. Frankie nervously smiled and chuckled at that statement, the others clearly not having heard what Jackson had whispered to her before transforming, despite their enhanced hearing. But she chose not to comment right away on that, in case they had another problem with the painting.

"Come on. Let's see how Ghoulia's been doing. Maybe we can start setting up the second hallway for tonight." Cleo said, taking charge in her typical manner and heading towards the library where Ghoulia was most likely to be. "I'd like to avoid spending more time in that room alone with the painting after all that's happened. Especially since we have to come back tonight too." she said, the others nodding along with her. The group made their way to the library, passing by Deuce and Clawd as they were setting up some of the stations where the food that had been prepared by the students was going to be sold to visitors. They waved and were about to continue on when Frankie gasped.

"I left something back up there!" she said, looking nervously to her friends. "I don't want to have to go up alone…" she said, hoping that one of them would offer to come with her at least to the end of the hallway.

"Let's go then mate." Lagoona said, Frankie sending her an incredibly relieved and appreciative smile as they began to backtrack. "But we better be quick." She said to Frankie, the other girl nodding in complete agreement over the shared sentiment. Reaching the end of the hall, Frankie walked back into the gallery with Lagoona not far behind, spotting the camera she was supposed to have taken to Spectra.

"Frankie, look…" Lagoona breathed out, pointing to the painting from behind the line that Frankie had thought was a safe distance. Frankie walked over to stand beside the sea monster, looking back at the painting to see that the under image was far more prominent than before, taking a look around the room to see that the changes that they'd noticed had luckily not progressed.

"Well, maybe that was just some strange excess that entered into the room." Frankie said, but Lagoona shook her head to Frankie's comment.

"That's not what I was looking at." Lagoona said, tugging on Frankie's sleeve to get her to look back. "I think Jackson and Catrina were right." She said as Frankie took a closer look. She hadn't seen the outline Catrina said she'd seen, but there was not denying that there was a figure in the painting now. But the fact that it was a young human man had her gasping as she saw it lying on what was the floor. The face was turned away, but she could see the pale hand that made her think of only one person.

"If it really was changing things out here….do you think it might be able to do what it's got painted here?" Frankie asked, swallowing thickly. "Is it after Jackson? I can't tell if that's supposed to be him or not, but I can only think of one human boy who's seen the painting since we've hung it up…" she said, not daring to take her eyes off the painting.

"Then it must 'think' that Jackson or Holt is getting in the way of whatever it wants to do." Lagoona said. "But if we look away, it might…I dunno….but that's when the changes happen." She said, sounding nervous herself. "If you hadn't forgotten that camera, who knows how far along in its painting it could have gotten..."

Frankie nodded but a sudden thought came to her. "Lagoona, if it got that far, I don't think we can look away." She said, sounding terrified at not being able to just leave it alone. "The…the others will notice soon….right?" Frankie asked.

"Yeah…'course they will." Lagoona said, the two girls reaching out to hold each other's hands. "I'm sure they'll be back in no time." She said. The two girls letting out a few timid noises as they briefly looked at each other before looking back, turning back to see that the picture had changed again to show the hallway starting to warp, red seeping through the cracks between the blended areas. They screamed and held onto each other tighter, not daring to look away in case something else should be unleashed.

* * *

Gil and Heath joined the girls in the hallway as they stood talking with Deuce and Clawd, waiting for Frankie and Lagoona to return. Although it also seemed like they weren't too rushed in getting back to dealing with what they needed to do for the other gallery, preferring to spend some time away and talking with the guys to keep their minds off of their worries.

"What did Frankie leave up there that's taking so long?" Cleo asked, leaning against the table that Deuce was setting up, picking at one of the treats he had given her with a smile on her face for her boyfriend's thoughtfulness. "Should we just go see if we can find Ghoulia and meet them up there? Might be quicker than just sitting around scaring ourselves some more – and not in a good way," She said, Clawdeen nodding along in reluctant agreement at just doing nothing.

"Heard Holt handled things swimmingly at the student showing." Gil said to the others, the girls all giving sighs at how quickly word had spread about Holt's behavior. But Heath didn't seem to think of it as a bother, laughing a little as they retold what had happened.

"So he was a little overprotective. Holt tends to get a little obsessive at times but it was for your own good this time." Heath said, reaching for one of the snacks only to have Clawd maneuver his hand away. "Oh come on. Just one and then I'll leave you alone." He pleaded, the werewolf rolling his eyes but not denying his friend a snack to keep him from potentially setting things on fire. Heath had a way of finding a way into being included, no matter how often or how bluntly he was told not to do something or join in, but Clawd had to admit to himself as his friend sent him a happy smile at being given his snack that he did always seem to try to be there for his friends. That, plus he seemed easy to please as Clawd watched the elemental practically devour his food in only a few bites, Abbey reprimanding him to remember to actually chew his food.

"Heath, why don't you go check on your cousin then?" Clawd said, not feeling overly guilty at setting up his friend, Heath's face letting everyone know he was not pleased with the suggestion. "Holt's in a mood and he usually only listens to you or Frankie when it gets as bad as it seems it was. Better go make sure he doesn't destroy the orchestra equipment or something…." He said, Heath's shoulders slumping as he realized his friend was right. He was about to head out when Ghoulia's moan interrupted their small talk as she came scurrying as fast as she could into the corridor.

"Hey, we were just about to go find you." Draculaura said, but Ghoulia's frantic gestures had her keep from saying anything else. She looked at Ghoulia curiously as she explained to her and the others what she'd found with some of Jackson's help from earlier.

"So, wait…you're saying that painting is _the_ portrait of _Dorian Gray_?" Clawdeen asked skeptically to her friend, Ghoulia shooting her a frustrated look at having her friend doubt her. "I'm not doubting your detective skills, but it just seems like not the sort of thing someone would just give to the school's art show. Besides, it can't be since there wasn't an actual, you know, _portrait_ on it at all." She said, crossing her arms.

Ghoulia gave another moan as she tried to explain, urging her friends to consider what she was saying. Abbey nodded along with her friend, tugging on Heath's sleeve. "You set that plant on fire but it didn't burn until you and Jackson walked away and it was in front of the painting again. Just like story of that normie who didn't age or get permanently hurt – was all taken in by portrait." She said, Heath's eyes widening.

"But didn't he eventually mess with it? Undo whatever magic the painter had used that made the portrait like that?" He asked, trying to recall what information they'd heard about this normie story. But it seemed like that was the extent of what he had, Abbey reasoning that he had probably only read the end of the book to be able to say something in class.

"Okay, that explains the plant, but what about all the other strange stuff?" Deuce asked, not sure what they could do with the information Ghoulia was giving them. Ghoulia shrugged but gave another moan to suggest that there might be something else that they were missing. "Well, we should go find Holt anyway and head back up." Heath said, starting to walk off only to find Jackson standing behind him.

"Ahh! How do you do that?!" Heath said, Jackson looking curiously at his cousin. "Seriously? Two werewolves and a vampire and nobody heard you coming?" He asked again, Jackson just rolling his eyes.

"Well, whatever got Holt in such a bad mood had him getting tossed off the stage, literally…" Jackson said, rubbing the back of his head. "I didn't think he was successful in convincing the orchestra to let him join in but he was there, and not watching where he was going. Man, that hurt." Jackson said with irritation in his voice at his alter ego's actions.

"He _wasn't_ successful but he went anyway." Heath said. "But good thing you're out. Ghoulia said she found more about the painting." He said, prompting Jackson to look over to the zombie. Ghoulia repeated what she told the others, Jackson's eyes widening.

"I knew there was more than one whisper coming from that thing." He said, gaining some curious looks. "Yeah, I heard it too. It wasn't just Holt being his usual mad self." Jackson rushed to say. "That's why it needed all that energy. Something is trying to form, and it might just be this Dorian Gray trying to get out again." Jackson said as he tried to piece together all the information they had. But he paused as he noticed a couple of their friends missing. "Where are Frankie and Lagoona?" he asked warily, dreading the answer he felt he knew was coming.

"Frankie left something back upstairs. Lagoona went with her to be safe." Cleo said, biting her lip and looking to Deuce. "You don't think…" she started to ask, but Jackson and Gil were already running off toward the stairs to the gallery hall. The others followed after them, but as soon as the two boys in the lead reached the top of the upper staircase that lead into the hallway, the thick wooden door that separated it from the rest of the staircase to the attic and then to the roof slammed shut. With their path blocked, Jackson stepped back to look over how they might get in, Gil trying to break down the door as they heard the two girls give out a frightened yell.

"Lagoona!" Gil shouted, Clawd coming to stand beside the water monster to try and help force the door open. "Lagoona, Frankie, we're coming!" He shouted again, before another unsuccessful attempt to get the door to budge.

"Don't let Jackson come in!" Frankie shouted to them. "The painting keeps changing if we look away. I think it wants him for some reason…" she said, the others out in the staircase looking to Jackson.

"Maybe needs another human to take over to be back to what it was before Mister Gray disappeared." Abbey suggested, Jackson shrugging at her remark. "Would make sense for why it talk to you so much. Why only you and Holt hear clearly." She said, but Jackson shook his head.

"Tell them to keep watching it. Don't get close to it because if it gets the chance, it might just go after them." Jackson said, taking off up the stairs.

"Where are you going?" Heath asked, following after his cousin. Jackson turned back briefly to explain. "Holt got us stuck in the walls the other day. I think I can remember another way to get in there but if I can't, you guys need to get that door open. Whether Deuce turns it to stone to smash it or you burn it, you need to get them out, _fast_ …" He said before taking off again into another doorway.

"Just keep talking to us Frankie! Lagoona!" Cleo shouted, turning back to Clawdeen. "Can you hear anything through the wall?" she asked, Clawdeen twitching her ears but shaking her head.

"If you can't hear them…then you definitely were hearing the painting that first time." Draculaura said, a panicked look on her face. But Lagoona and Frankie continued to shout out to them the various changes that they saw happening in the picture, detailing how it was starting to look more and more like the image Catrina described to them and less like the hallway of the school. They felt the floor shake a little, hearing how some pieces of art fell to the floor.

"You two alright?" Deuce asked, the others silently waiting for an answer. He'd been all for Jackson's suggestion, but with the way the painting was taking over, he didn't want to risk surprising the girls enough to have the painting do something to them. Heath was working on a slow, controlled burn, but the shaking had started before they'd gotten safely through to the lock.

"Yeah…" Frankie's voice called out. "You okay Lagoona?" She asked, the others assuming that the two had lost their balance.

"Uh huh…wait….if you're not looking…" they heard Lagoona say, before they heard both girls scream again as they must have looked back. They couldn't tell what it was that they were seeing but the painting had clearly progressed much farther than the last time they looked to have them all fearing it was reaching its end goal. "The canvas is changing…it's an arm reaching out…" Frankie's high-pitched voice said, causing the others to put renewed effort into getting them out.

"Why shake the floor or the walls or whatever it did? That had to have taken up a lot of its energy…" Clawdeen asked, Ghoulia moaning an answer that she preferred not to hear. "It did take their attention away for a minute…but what else could it…." She started to ask before the lights began to flicker.

"Oh no…" Cleo said, "It tried to shake up the wires. No electricity up here…" she started to say with wide eyes. "No lights. The curtains were drawn, remember, when we tinkered with them after we were wondering about the curtains in the painting. It wanted to make us do those things…" she said, hands covering her mouth.

"No lights means they can't watch its movements…" Deuce said, patting Heath on the shoulder to hurry up. "I know, I know…I don't want to set the whole hall on fire with them in it if I get carried away." Heath said, voice sounding panicked as he tried to work faster while Clawd and Gil continued to try and pry off the hinges to get inside with Abbey's help.

"Just keep watching it. Don't let it do anything else." Draculaura shouted to her friends. "What do you think we're doing?!" Lagoona shouted back to her in a mix of frustration and fear. "But the lights are going out." She said, the girls looking up as they noticed how increasingly dimmer the lights were getting. They heard the girls gasp again, their attention back on the door. "What's going on?" Draculaura shouted, hoping that there wasn't any more progress with the painting.

"Something's happening with the wall the painting's hanging on." Frankie said. "I think it's…" she started to say before Lagoona screamed out that the lights went out behind them. They heard Frankie gasp again as she must have looked away too. "The painting's _moving_ …but we're watching it…" she said, the others hearing her and Lagoona whimpering in fright before a loud bang was heard. The lights flickered back on a little more and Heath managed to get the door open. The others rushed inside to find Frankie and Lagoona holding onto one another with their heads ducked as though expecting something to come after them.

"Frankie! Lagoona!" the girls shouted, causing the two to look up in confusion. Seeing their friends though, they smiled widely, Gil rushing over to Lagoona who happily hugged him tightly. "How'd you two escape?" Clawd asked, looking over the tossed items in the room.

"I don't know. The painting was stretching out toward us and then the wall was shaking again and the next thing we knew, the lights were coming back on." Frankie said, sounding breathless in her relief. But Cleo's gasp had her tensing up again. Looking over to the mummy, she turned to see what it was that had her friend looking so surprised, despite not wanting to ever face that painting again. But as she looked at the wall, she found it to not be holding the painting. In fact, it was dusty and covered in cobwebs like it had been left unattended for years.

"Jackson said he was going to find a way in through the changing wall passages." Deuce said as he ran his hand along the wall. "I'm guessing he heard you two and switched this segment of the wall." He said, turning to look back at the others in confusion. Frankie's eyes widened as she realized what had happened.

"But if he turned the wall…and he was on the other side…" she said, dashing over to the wall to see if she could find the trigger to turn it around again. "Come on guys. Help me!" she said, urging the others to help run their hands across the dusty wall to turn it back around.

Ghoulia gave a moan for the others to stand back, activating the trigger she'd found and the others watched as the wall swung back around. Only this time, there was nothing on the hook that had held the painting. "Do it again. We need to find a way into the passage." Frankie said, but Ghoulia moaned that the trigger seemed to have only been on the one side.

"We'll find him Frankie. He can't be too far. Just be glad he isn't Manny lost in that maze." Draculaura said, trying to ease her friend's worries. But they were all worried about what may have happened to their friend if whatever was trying to get out of the painting was successful and had run into Jackson. And if they hadn't met yet, they all knew it was only a matter of time before it and Jackson ran into each other in the dark.

* * *

Jackson fell back onto the floor after he pulled the trigger for the wall, hoping that this was the one he thought he'd used the other day to get into the gallery. It had swung around and dumped him into the unfinished segment that he'd then let Holt out in, and he thought for sure that it was near enough to get inside. But as he pulled it, hearing the girls' shouts, he was surprised to find that instead of the wall in front of him moving, he'd activated another wall segment. But hearing something fall to the ground he righted himself quickly, calling up a small flame to light the tunnel between the walls. Seeing what looked like a painting with a heavy and large frame on the floor he made to just toss the flame onto it, recognizing it as the one that was causing so much trouble for everyone. But hearing another person's voice groaning had him pause, readjusting where he was casting the light. He felt his mouth drop open in surprise at seeing another boy in the tunnel on the floor. There wasn't much room between the walls and he didn't know how they hadn't already bumped into each other.

"Hello?" Jackson shakily called out, really hoping that the nasty thing that was whispering to him was not this boy that had apparently escaped from the painting. The boy stopped trying to right himself at the Jackson's voice, turning to look up at Jackson. He looked to be about Jackson's age with similarly dark hair and blue eyes.

"H-hello…" He said, swallowing as though his throat was dry from disuse. "W-where…" he started to say before the painting starting to shake on its own as though something else was trying to get out and finding itself unable to do so as it lay flat on the floor. "Quick!" The other boy shouted, putting his weight onto the painting to keep it from moving around, Jackson following his example, the two of them dragging the painting across the floor a little ways to make sure that there wasn't any chance for whatever was in there to find a chance to get out. Eventually it seemed like the painting realized that it was beat and stopped moving, the two boys breathing a sigh of relief, jumping a little when they heard the wall turn again.

"Is this thing done now?" Jackson asked the other boy, who seemed to know what was going on with it since his mad dive to keep it from righting itself to expose the canvas. The other boy gave a heavy sigh and a shrug, the light minimal where they were thanks to Jackson's phone giving them some illumination. He had pulled it out instead of relying on his small flame as they held the painting down, since the other boy seemed on edge with the flame so close to the canvas.

"I'm Jackson by the way." He said, extending a hand as best he could in their close quarters. The other boy gave a tight smile. "I'm Daniel Gray." He said, taking the hand and shaking it, giving another heavy sigh. "It's good to finally be out of that ridiculous painting." He said, Jackson picking up on the English accent.

"Daniel Gray? Any relation to a Dorian Gray?" Jackson asked, the other boy nodding. "Yeah, he was my father. Mom never told him that she had me since she and him weren't, well, married at the time, and she died when I was really little. But when I turned sixteen, I'd decided I'd introduce myself to him." He said, Jackson nodding along to encourage him to keep talking.

"I forced my way into his study and found him being pulled into this painting. And stupid me – I thought he'd appreciate my help." Daniel said. " _I_ got pulled in and he let me, but it seemed like something else hit him as I went in. I couldn't tell for sure since everything was all warped from my perspective, but I think he and his alter ego that was in the painting must've merged somewhat and I don't think that ended well for him." He said.

Jackson nodded at Daniel's unspoken question. "Yeah…All the magic he'd been using to keep the painting the one aging and stuff rebounded. But that was a long time ago." Jackson said, Daniel looking at him questioningly.

"How long is a long time?" He asked, but Jackson shook his head. "Welcome to the twenty-first century Daniel." He said, watching as the other's face took on an expression of disbelief. "I know it might be a little much, but my friends and I will definitely get you some help." Jackson said, Daniel just nodding to him. "But that alter ego thing you were talking about…" Jackson started, hoping to get the other to answer his lingering questions. "Was that the other voice I was hearing?" he asked him, seeing Daniel's eyes focus back on him sharply.

"You could hear it? You could hear me?" He asked in wonder. "I thought I was able to get through a couple of times to, I think one was a _green_ girl and the other, a…a…" Daniel started to say but Jackson waved him off.

"Yeah. More surprises for you. Frankie is a Frankenstein monster and Clawdeen is a werewolf. You definitely got through to them." Jackson said as he realized Clawdeen had been hearing Daniel's heartbeat whenever he'd gotten closer to the edge of the painting. Jackson watched the others' eyes widen in surprise. "This painting is at a school for monsters." He said as a quick explanation.

"But then, why are you…" Daniel started to ask but seemed to consider asking something else instead. "You said you could hear both me and what was left of my father's alter ego – believe me when I say that having to deal with one of those was incredibly exhausting." He said, rubbing a hand across his face.

"Yeah…I do understand." Jackson said with a small smile. "You might have heard of Dr. Jekyll in your time…" He started to say, but Daniel nodded. "Yeah. Heard he went absolutely bonkers and created a monster inside of him. Good thing he was on the other side of London from where I lived." He said, Jackson nodding his head as he thought of a polite way of introducing his family history.

"Well, you wanted to know why I attend a school for monsters. My last name is Jekyll." He said, watching as a look of dread formed on Daniel's face. "Don't worry. My Hyde has anger issues but he's nothing like the stories you read in the newspapers. If anything, he's just obnoxious and totally unreliable for anything, but he heard that alter ego in the painting trying to encourage him to do some nasty things. It probably figured from one alter ego to another, they could cause some real havoc around here once it found a way to get out." Jackson said, seeing Daniel looking slightly less ready to try and find his way out on his own.

"But, you heard me too?" Daniel asked, Jackson nodding. "I guess both _I_ did, and so did Holt. It's why we couldn't figure out what was going on with the painting. Guess having an alter ego made us able to hear you better. But you don't think you….might have one now…do you?" He asked warily, knowing that if someone had asked him that question not that long ago, he'd have been highly insulted. But Daniel seemed to have decided to just suspend all disbelief for the moment and go with the kind of logic Jackson was using with him.

"I'm not entirely sure I know of _anything_ right now. I do know that I was able to manipulate a few things from within the painting, like that plant. I might be able to still do that sort of thing from having been absorbed in that paint for so long. But I never used it like my father did as a double of himself, so I don't _think_ I'll have an alter ego in the painting too." Daniel said, finally getting up from where he and Jackson had been holding the painting down. He took off his overcoat and he and Jackson carefully used it to wrap the canvas side of the painting. "Just in case. Please don't torch it. I don't know what you did with the torch you had,…" he said, Jackson opting not to mention any more surprises to the boy, "…but just in case I'm tied to it the same way my father was, I'd rather _not_ get burnt to a crisp." He said, Jackson giving him a short laugh.

"Sounds like a good plan. And if that's the case, I'm sure you'll be able to find a way with the Headmistress's help to get back on your feet." Jackson said, guiding them back out to the entrance he used from the attic. The two boys made small talk as they walked back down to the main area of the castle, Jackson learning more about Daniel as they went to the Headmistress's office to explain what had happened. Daniel gave a grateful smile to Jackson as he made to leave him with the Headmistress to give them some privacy to talk. Jackson was chuckling a little when Daniel turned even paler when he saw Headmistress Bloodgood take her head off her shoulders momentarily before realizing she might be upsetting the other boy. Jackson then made his way back upstairs, wondering why he hadn't come across his friends yet. Walking through the busted doorway, he shook his head at Heath's handiwork. He walked over to where he saw the others standing around one of the walls.

"What are you all looking at?" He asked as he tried to figure out why they were still standing there rather than trying to find the painting like he thought they might. Frankie whirled around and ran into his arms, hugging him tightly. "Whoa…um…you alright?" He asked, Frankie nodding against his chest.

"Dude, we didn't know how to go after you." Deuce said by way of explanation. "We were looking for more possible triggers to let us into the tunnels between the walls or something, but we didn't want to release whatever might have been after you." He said, Jackson nodding in understanding as he stood there with Frankie resting against him.

"Well, there was someone trying to…" Jackson started to say before having to tap Frankie on the shoulder to get her to ease her grip on him. He coughed a little as she smiled sheepishly at him. "There was a guy trapped in there. Daniel Gray, _son_ of Dorian Gray. He got sucked in the same time his dad had the magic rebound back at him and so he's been dealing with his father's, well, 'double', for a while. I'm just glad you girls are okay." He said, hugging Frankie to him again, although she didn't seem to mind.

"So is it over then? Can we get back to just setting up the artwork and stuff without worrying about a creepy painting?" Draculaura asked, Clawd laughing at his girlfriend's quick rebound. The others seemed to take the opportunity for levity and let themselves relax too, Jackson nodding in response to her question.

"I think it's over, for now." Jackson said, Frankie looking curiously at him. "Daniel was worried he might be tied to the painting now too. If that's the case, it might be hanging up again at some point." He said, the others giving heavy sighs of frustration at that thought. "But Headmistress Bloodgood is with him right now to fix all of the, unpleasant and uglier aspects of the painting so you don't need to worry about that. Besides, Daniel seems like a nice enough guy." He said with a shrug.

* * *

With that, the girls tried to put their scary adventure of the past few afternoons behind them to focus on finishing up their displays, getting the camera to Spectra to bolster their online portion of the exhibit as well as finding out which pieces from the online polls would be rotated through the gallery when. As it turned out, Frankie was pleasantly surprised to find that Jackson and Holt had carried through on their idea, choosing to submit their details together in a more low-key way. The girls had no doubt that was a concession made by Holt on Jackson's behalf, but seeing the short poem that Holt was adamant was not a poem, attached to a sketch that Jackson had done of all of them outside was worth the wait. There wasn't any color to the sketch, since it was just one of his sketches he probably hadn't intended anyone to see. But everyone could see the extra attention he'd given to Frankie, causing the other girls to friendly tease her as they looked over the online submissions, admiring the way Holt's handwriting had been stylistically incorporated with his 'song lyrics' giving a sort of frame to it.

"I'm glad you decided to go with Holt's suggestion." Frankie said to him as they walked through the gallery. "I know this is a little out of your comfort zone than say, a mad science lab…" she said with a fond smile as Jackson blushed, "…But it looks wonderful. It should've been picked to be set up in the other hallway." She said, sounding a little disappointed the student poll and Board of Deaducation decisions having not giving them the go-ahead to just put up Jackson and Holt's sketch. But Jackson didn't seem to be as bothered by it as Frankie.

"It's fine. I'm included and that's awesome on its own." He said, Frankie already knowing that he had been worried that the submission process wouldn't take his sketch. But she smiled back at him, leaning a little closer to him. "And I think Catrina's work was definitely the right choice. Plus, she and Daniel seem to be getting along very well." He said, motioning with his head over to where the werecat stood talking art with the newest member of the school.

"I bet they have a lot in common." Frankie said with a laugh. "And she did get to know him already too. Although, I'd have thought Daniel would've had enough of paintings for a while." She said, Jackson responding with a shrug.

"Sure. But people like to stick close to what they know. This is the closest he probably has to what he's familiar with – and he was connected so long to painting that he's likely capable of being able to find the beauty in it still." Jackson said, guiding Frankie back downstairs. "I bet that's where his father went wrong. He was too hung up on beauty being the _only_ thing that mattered to him, especially his own. But knowing that there should be appreciation of plenty of other things isn't something that Daniel seems to be unaware of and he might be able to produce amazing works of art with his newfound talents." He said, Frankie nodding.

"Good thing you were here to figure that out. Another guy with an alter ego is helping him move on, huh?" She asked as they walked over to get in line to buy some food. Jackson gave a short laugh. "He doesn't have one. Well, sorta, but it's stuck in the painting and unless he gets too carried away, it'll be keeping his father's double company for a while." He said, smirking at how lucky the other seemed in being able to keep his alter ego contained. They got themselves something from Deuce, Jackson sharing a knowing look with his friend over manning the food stands, but the gorgon just shrugged in response rather than say anything and give himself away to anyone else who didn't think he was simply fulfilling his 'punishment' for turning a couple of students to stone a while back.

Frankie and Jackson walked to the auditorium, finishing up their food and finding a seat next to Abbey and Heath. But before the performance was to begin, one of the orchestra players tapped Jackson on the shoulder and asked him to follow him. Frankie looked over to the others, but they were equally confused. The orchestra began to play before Jackson returned and while Frankie was still preoccupied with looking for Jackson, she did enjoy the performance. It seemed to wind down after the second song, until she was startled by hearing dubstep joining in with 'In The Hall of the Mountain King', looking up to see Holt playing on his equipment behind them in the lighting area. He wasn't center stage like he probably had been arguing for, but Frankie smiled as it seemed the students Holt had been trying to convince decided to drop their double standard for at least a couple of songs. It seemed to go over well with all music lovers in the crowd, Frankie giving Holt another few claps as he met up with them in the hallway after the show.

"I knew I'd get through to them. Shame they didn't just believe me. Had to go through the normie to figure it out, but oh well. It was rockin' in there finally." Holt said, earning himself a few laughs at his typical attitude. "Yo, you wanna stay or can we head out and do somethin' else? There's only so much of this I can take." Holt said with a smirk. "You know, without adding a few awesome elements of my own. Right Heath?" He said, turning to his cousin who rolled his eyes.

"I already got in trouble for the green mustaches. Clawd won't let me near any paint if he can help it." He said, although he too laughed at the memory of them all wearing his own artwork for a while. Holt laughed too, holding out a tube of paint that he'd swiped from one of the various students.

"I won't tell if you don't…" He said with a smirk, but Abbey took the tube of paint and shook her head. "Is no good. Will not be framing anybody today, Holt" She said, Holt and Heath looking a little disappointed at not getting to have some of their fun.

"I think they might have." Frankie said, wrapping Holt's arm around her shoulders. "But, that one had more to do with an actual frame. Holt kept everybody safe earlier by keeping things inside the frame. He's our hero." She said teasingly, kissing him on the cheek.

"Hey, I'm the one that opened the door." Heath said, looking to get some of that praise too, his cousin cheekily smiling at him. "Come on. I had this today." He said, as they walked outside, a chorus of 'Sure Heath' heard as they made their way home.


End file.
